AFTER successfully outlasting the holy month of Ramazan, we celebrate Eidul Fitr today with joy, thanksgiving and relief. Fasting in Ramazan is supposed to teach Muslims self-discipline, self-control and sacrifice. It also teaches us the significance of empathy for the poor, and that explains the spirit of charity during the sacred month.

One of my earliest memories is my father taking me to a shoe shop on Eid day to buy new shoes. Yes, such shops used to be open on Eid days in the 1950s. I am reluctant to say what he paid for the pair, as it would make my grandchildren think that I need urgent psychiatric treatment.

I would be delirious with happiness when receiving Eidi from an uncle (usually a rupee coin). Today’s children tend to think you are a cheapskate even if you give them a thousand-rupee note.

Sad to say, the Eid spirit of those days is no longer there. In Ramazan, our shopkeepers go on a looting spree, raising the prices of edibles and almost every item. Compare this to the huge discounts offered by shops in Western countries ahead of Christmas, and even Eid.

Those of us who were able to survive the holy month without being mugged or blown up should be grateful. There are at least 80 million Pakistanis who do not have enough to eat. Then there are those whose incomes are barely enough to help them subsist.

You cannot blame them for feeling bitter about the huge increase in salaries of our lawmakers, or for having paid through their noses during Ramazan for eatables, clothes and everything else just to enable the exploiters to pay for their annual vacations.

And let us not forget the 22-year-old Karachi woman who was crushed to death in Ramazan in a stampede to collect charity ration for the family. The household, like many others, will spend the day in mourning. Or those whose loved ones were slaughtered by terrorists during the holy month.

Oh, yes, there are those who will have much cause to celebrate, like our parliamentarians who awarded themselves an astronomical increase in salaries, the unscrupulous importers who managed to loot billions in the recent Customs scam, and the sugar mafia that exported what it called surplus sugar so that prices would rise from Rs130 to Rs180 per kg.

So, despite all the signs pointing to more pain and agony in the coming months, let us hope and pray that we survive until the next Ramazan. Eid Mubarak to one and all!

Shakir Lakhani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025